Ke Huy Quan has disclosed a remarkable act of generosity from Steven Spielberg and George Lucas that significantly altered his family's financial circumstances. Quan, who was 13 when he starred as Short Round in the 1984 film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, explained that the filmmakers included a "profit-sharing" deal in his contract, a practice he described as "unheard of" at the time.
"Back then, almost no actors got a piece of a movie’s profits. Even today, only the biggest stars do," Quan, now 55, stated in his memoir, Never Say Die. His family, who had fled Vietnam and spent time in a Hong Kong refugee camp before settling in Los Angeles, was struggling with debt and lacked a car when the film's success provided unexpected relief.
"Little did we know there was a paragraph in there that would change our lives when the movie came out. And that generous gesture that [Lucas and Spielberg] gave me was life-changing for our family at that time," Quan told People. The actor shared that he was astonished by his first royalty check, which amounted to $100,000. It was only later that the family realized the contract they had signed nearly two years prior contained this "small profit-sharing component none of us had known about."
Prior to this unexpected windfall, Quan's family "didn’t have anything. My parents were heavily in debt," he recalled. The earnings from Indiana Jones allowed him to open his first savings and checking account.
Quan's collaboration with Spielberg extended to the 1985 film The Goonies, also produced by Spielberg. Following a career lull, Quan experienced a significant comeback with the 2022 film Everything Everywhere All At Once, for which he received an Academy Award for best supporting actor.
In his memoir, Quan also recounted how Spielberg enlisted him to help manage Harrison Ford's occasionally difficult demeanor on the set of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. "I found out that whenever [Ford] was in a bad mood, Steven would tell someone: 'Send Ke over,'" Quan wrote. He recalled that Ford would soften when he interacted with Quan, often greeting him warmly.
